Brad Stevens Quotes

I think when you're a very good defensive team - it's very rare a team wins a championship when you're not a very good defensive team.

It's important for us, if we're going to be a good team, to be a good defensive team in the fourth quarter.

Stop by stop by stop. Play aggressively. Sprint back on 'D' and pay attention to how we're supposed to guard as a team

Defense is one man guarding the ball and four others helping him

They scored 26 points in three quarters. That's solid defense.

If we don't start playing better on defense, it's going to be hard. We can't just sit there and win shootouts.

We've been playing ugly. Without all of our bodies, we've been kicking it all over the shop, but fortunately we've been able to make the big buckets and rely on our defense for once.

I'm still going to have to go out and score, but defensively hopefully I can make them a little bit better.

The NBA has never drafted a player for defense. At any position, even at center.

Defensively, from a team standpoint, I didn't feel I played very well. Very rarely was I satisfied with how I played.

Go back through football, and you will see that the team with the best defense wins.

If you have a game where you're under pressure, obviously there are going to be a lot of shots on target, and you're going to make saves, but you can't say you played well in a game where you concede five goals. It's ridiculous.

I think when you're a very good defensive team you give yourself a chance every night, on the road, at home, it's a big factor and something to build on.

Being able to guard the pick and roll makes you a high asset in the NBA.

I think if you're not conceding so many goals, it gives you a great platform to win games.

I want to guard the best wings and big on every team. I want to make their night tough to gain that respect defensively around the league.

LeBron is one of the greats. He's going to hit tough shots. You have to be able to live with them and limit everyone else around him.

I never thought I'd lead the NBA in rebounding, but I got a lot of help from my team-mates - they did a lot of missing.

Good basketball always starts with good defense!

If teams keep playing us this way, it's going to be like this.

They played exquisite basketball in this series and in particular these last three games. They are the better team. There is no other way to say it. They played great basketball, and we couldn't respond to it.

Good players win you games, good formations stop you losing them.

We did everything we could to win this game on a tricky pitch. We created a lot of opportunities but between the posts and Bonano, we failed to find the goal. We did well but we let a victory slip from our grasp. I still think we are carrying on where we left off last season and you saw a team that was working for 90 minutes. We showed off our talent but just couldn't get a goal.

We scored a season-high, yeah - albeit against a team that is somewhat tanking.

That's how we like to play basketball, is be physical down there in the paint and force teams to the perimeter.